The present invention relates to chemical analysis of the elemental composition of atmospheric aerosol particles and, more particularly, to a system and method for collecting sub-hourly ambient aerosol for elemental and chemical analysis.
The present invention also relates to the automated sampling of ambient aerosol particles in a manner suitable for multi-element analysis of collections made at sub-hourly intervals with commonly available laboratory analysis instruments, wherein the samples are collected with sufficient efficiency to be regarded as quantitative.
Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method which allows removal of aerosol particles from ambient air introduction of them into an aqueous slurry at a concentration suitable for analysis by a broad range of off-the-shelf analytical instrumentation for elemental and chemical compound or chemical ion analysis, as well as for toxicological testing.
The present invention further relates to a monitoring system and method for determination of trace elements and heavy metals in ambient aerosol particles where the collected samples may be stored either in a series of vials for off-line analysis and testing without interfacing problems, or can be introduced directly into analytical instruments for near-real-time on-line analysis.
Measurements of airborne concentrations of major, minor, and trace elements are clearly needed for assessments of human health risk, environmental contamination, compliance with National Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and source attribution by receptor modeling techniques. Important issues include improvements in the characterization of the temporal history of aerosol exposure and in the linkage of the levels of aerosol particles and their toxic constituents to their sources, i.e., improved source-receptor relationships. Some states, including Maryland are considering continuous source monitoring for toxic air pollutants.
With regard to health risks, residental, workplace, and ambient outdoor environments are of interest. Most elements of environmental interest reside on aerosol particles, usually those with diameters smaller than 10 xcexcm. Elements of interest include Pb (a criteria pollutant); elements listed as xe2x80x9cair toxinsxe2x80x9d, e.g., Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, As, Se, and Hg; essential nutrients, e.g., Fe; and those toxic to marine organisms, e.g., Al. Elements of interest to the receptor modeling community include all of the aforementioned and much of the rest of the periodic table. Since many elements must be determined simultaneously, requirements for receptor modeling are perhaps the most demanding. Average concentrations of these elements in the urban and rural areas usually are of the order of 0.1 ng/m3 for Cd, Co, and Ag; 1 to 5 ng/m3 for As, Cr, Mn, Pb, Se, and V, about 10 ng/m3 for Ti and Zn; and 100 ng/m3 for Al and Fe.
At the above-mentioned concentrations, continuous or even near-continuous monitors are virtually nonexistent. Instead, air sampling for elemental analysis typically involves preconcentration of the aerosol by filtration or impaction, followed by off-line analysis by highly sensitive analytical techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), atomic spectroscopy techniques (atomic absorption and atomic emission), and mass spectrometry (e.g., inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, ICPMS). This is generally performed with dichotomous and impactor samplers which size-fractionate aerosol particles (thereby increasing required analytical sensitivity) and can accommodate low-mass, low-blank substrates, e.g., Gelman xe2x80x9cTefloxe2x80x9d PTFE filters. Standard samplers use 47- or 37-mm substrates and typically operate at from 17 to 40 L/min, although a flow rate of 80 L/min is achieved with 47-mm xe2x80x9cTefloxe2x80x9d filters in the UMCP dichotomous sampler (Wu, et al. xe2x80x9cChesapeake Bay Atmospheric Deposition Study, Year 1: Sources and Deposition of Selected Elements in Aerosol Particlesxe2x80x9d, Atmos. Environ, 28:1471-1486, 1994). As a result, sample collection times, as long as 6-24 hours, are much longer than time scales for changes in source strengths and important meteorological parameters, e.g., wind direction, mixing height, temperature, and relative humidity (RH).
Multi-elemental analysis is often performed first by a conventional energy-dispersive (ED) XRF technique, followed by INAA. The two techniques are complimentary and can provide concentrations for more than 40 elements in typical air samples. The XRF technique provides good sensitivity for Pb, Cu, Ni, S, and Si, i.e., elements which are not readily detected by INAA while INAA provides many more elements for which XRF is insensitive, e.g., V, As, Se, Sb, and rare earths. However, neither technique routinely provides Cd data in typical air samples. In Maryland (where the average airborne Cd concentration is only about 0.1 ng m3), the far superior performance of Graphite-Furnace atomic absorption (with Zeeman background correction) is routinely used for Cd analyses. This is accomplished subsequent to sample dissolution and removal of silica and carbon using nitric, perchloric, and hydrofluoric acids. With this type of methodology, multi-elemental analyses are greatly time consuming and, thus expensive, which makes high temporal resolution often impractical, simply from the standpoint of analytical costs. Additionally, when samples are dissolved prior to analysis by GFAA, only a small fraction of the sample (typically 5 to 20 xcexcL) is introduced into the furnace. To overcome this deficiency, techniques have been devised for introducing atmospheric particulate matter directly without dissolution, thus reducing air sampling requirements substantially.
As described in Sneddon (xe2x80x9cDirect collection of lead in the atmosphere by impaction for determination by electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometry,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem., 56:1982-1986, 1984; xe2x80x9cUse of an impaction-electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometric system for the direct determination of cadmium, copper, and manganese in the laboratory atmosphere,xe2x80x9d Anal. Letters, 18:1261-1280, 1985; xe2x80x9cDirect and near real time determination of metallic compounds in the atmosphere by AAxe2x80x9d, American Laboratory, 18 (3): 43-50 1986; xe2x80x9cDirect and near real-time determination of metals in the atmosphere by atomic spectroscopic techniques,xe2x80x9d Trends in Anal. Chem., 7:222-226, 1988; xe2x80x9cCollection efficiency of an impaction-electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometric system for the direct and near-real-time determination of metals in aerosols: some preliminary results,xe2x80x9d Appl. Spectrosc., 43:1100-1102, 1988; and xe2x80x9cMultielement atomic absorption spectrometry, a historical perspective,xe2x80x9d Microchem J., 48:318-325, 1993) a single, tantalum-jet impactor was designed to fit in the sample introduction port of a graphite furnace platform. An air-tight container was used to house the platform during sample collection. Sampling rates were limited by the small size of the 8-mm-id platform thus limiting the ability to aspirate ambient aerosol at rates only up to 15 L/min. After collection, the platform was removed from the sample collection housing and placed in the furnace for single-element analysis of the sample.
Sneddon reported detection limits in ng/m3 for 17 elements including Cr, Co, Fe, Ni, Pb, Se, Si, Sn, and Zn based on direct, sequential, single-element analysis of aerosol particles collected for 5 min at an air flow rate of 10 L/min using an Instrumentation laboratory 457 AA with model 655 graphite furnace. Sneddon""s detection limits are the concentration giving a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Except for Zn and Fe, these detection limits exceed ambient concentrations by from 10- to 20-fold, indicating that samples would need to be collected for from about 50 to 100 minutes to achieve analyses at the detection limit for elements occurring in the atmosphere at their average concentrations; while concentrations less than the average would not be detected. To achieve analyses at the detection limit when sampling the minimum concentrations of all detected elements (except Fe and Zn), sampling times would have to be increased from 2 to 32 hours and only one element could be obtained in the sample.
As an alternative to the direct GFAA technique of Sneddon, Chakrabarti, et al. (xe2x80x9cDirect determination of metals associated with airborne particulates using a graphite probe collection technique and graphite probe atomic absorption spectrometric analysis,xe2x80x9d Spectrochimica Ata., 42B: 1227-1233, 1987), developed another off-line sampler consisting of a rectangular porous graphite probe (25-mm long, 5-mm wide, 0.2 mm thick) which could be mounted in a modified filter holder to collect ambient aerosol particles at a flow rate of 0.1 L/min. After sampling, the probe was removed from the holder and inserted into the graphite furnace platform and analyzed using a Perkin-Elmer model 5000 AA, with a model HGA-500 graphite furnace. Detection limits in ng/m3 were reported for Pb, Cd, Cu, Ni, Mn, Zn, Cr, and V at sampling times ranging from 1.4 to 3440 minutes. For the elements such as Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn, the detection limits were from 3-(Zn) to 30-(Pb) fold lower than those achieved by Sneddon""s instrument. Some of these differences may be attributable to differences in the method of calculating detection limits.
As described by Miller-Ihli (xe2x80x9cSolid Analysis by GFASS,xe2x80x9d Anal. Chem, 64, 964A-968A, 1992), direct solids analysis by GFAA, has been successfully applied to a large number of sample matrices, owing largely to recent advances in furnace technology and application of Zeeman-effect background correction. Zeeman background correctors use a powerful magnetic field to effect hyper-fine splitting of the incident line source into multiple components other than the analytical wavelength. Broadband molecular absorption and scattering losses are measured while the field is on, atomic absorption is measured at the analyte wavelength when the field is switched off. In addition to airborne particles, relevant matrices include biological samples of coal, coal fly ash (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, and Ni) and waterborne suspended particulate matter. Many solid materials have been analyzed after preparing a slurry (usually in dilute nitric acid) to permit volumetric introduction into the graphite furnace, e.g., with a pipette or auto sampler. Detection limits reported for direct analyses of slurry samples are comparable to those obtained by Chakrabarti, et al.
In the multi-element GFAA analysis with direct sample injection, the entire sample is consumed during the analysis. Application of a conventional single-channel AA (atomic absorption) device to air monitoring would, therefore, limit monitoring to a single element at a time. Single-channel AA spectrometry is achieved with low cost medium-resolution monochrometers by using narrow, single-element, line sources (e.g., hollow-cathode lamps). However, a variety of multi-element instruments have been designed using continuum source technology, for example, a 16-channel instrument, termed SIMAAC (for simultaneous multi-element atomic absorption with continuum source). Based on a continuum source and echelle polychrometer, the SIMAAC was capable of measuring up to 16 elements, simultaneously, with either flame or graphite-furnace atomization. Absolute multi-element detection limits achieved with standard solutions were a few pg for Cu, Cr, Mg, Mn, and Zn; about 15 pg for Co; and in the 50 pg range for Fe and V. These compared favorably with conventional, single-element AA; and were uniformly better than those achieved by inductively-coupled plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES).
The basis of the SIMAAC instrument was a high-resolution, Spectraspan III Eschelle polychrometer which resolves incident light into component wavelengths onto a two-dimensional spatial array at the exit plane where 20 exit slits were located on a removable mask or xe2x80x9ccassettexe2x80x9d. Because of their large size, pinhead mirrors mounted within the cassette are needed to direct the light from the slits to a fixed array of 20 photomultiplier tubes.
Both Hitachi and Thermo Jarrell Ash (TJA) have built instruments capable of simultaneous analysis of 4 elements using hollow-cathode lamps. The former was originally designed in the late 1980s and employs four-photomultiplier tubes to allow simultaneous monitoring of each element. The latter is a single-channel scanning instrument and has been successfully used the TJA instrument to simultaneously analyze Cd and Pb in blood with graphite furnace atomization.
Perkin Elmer (PE) has recently introduced an element GFAAS, referred to as the SIMAA 6000. The instrument uses a specially-designed, high-dispersion, high-luminosity, Tetrahedral Echelle Polychrometer and a monolithic detector incorporating high-performance, UV-optimized, photodiodes. The detector is located at the focal plane of the polychrometer and individual photodiodes are positioned at the primary resonance lines of each of 38 elements and at the secondary lines of a number of key elements. Data collection is achieved with eight independent analog channels using eight separate analog-to-digital converters. A maximum of 6 elements can be determined simultaneously with PE""s software. Elements measurable in multi-element mode include: Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ti, V, Cr, Mo, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ru, Ag, Cd, Au, Hg, B, Al, Si, P, Ge, As, Se, In, Sn, Sb, Te, Ti, and Pb. The instrument comes with PE""s transversely-heated graphite analyzer (THGA) which may provide a uniform temperature profile across the length of the furnace tube. This feature reduces memory effects experienced with older designs which employ constant heating only at the center.
Memory effects in the latter are exacerbated by condensation of analytes in cooler regions at the ends of the tube. The furnace tube is designed with an integral L""vov platform to allow more rapid sample heating, which permits atomization of refractory elements (e.g., V, Ti, and Mo) from the L""vov platform and lower optimum atomization temperatures. Perkin Elmer also incorporates a longitudinal Zeeman-effect background corrector which eliminates the need for polarizers in the optical system. Zeeman background correction is generally effective in correcting for apparent background absorption caused by scatter from droplets and smoke particles. As discussed above, this is important for direct solids analysis. Despite the extra optics required to combine light sources, high polychrometer luminosity and detector sensitivity afford detection limits that are, in fact, marginally better than those achieved by earlier single-element instruments.
While various studies demonstrate the efficacy of direct particulate analysis, the development of a true near-real-time instrument is precluded by the low sampling rates (i.e., 1 to 10 L/min) achieved by direct impaction and filtration schemes employed for sample collection. Most of the elements could be routinely detected, even at the lowest concentrations observed in ambient air, only if the sample volume was increased to 2 m3. Delivery of aerosol particulate matter associated with this much air may be achieved in 10 minutes if an effective flow rate of 200 L/min flow rate could be accommodated by direct impaction into a graphite furnace platform. This would be highly desirable in the aerosol chemical analysis.
Aerosol concentration is described in aerosol exposure studies (Sioutas, C., Koutrakis P., and Olson, B. A., xe2x80x9cDevelopment of a low cutpoint virtual impactor,xe2x80x9d Aerosol Science and Technology 21:223-236, 1994; Sioutas, C., Koutrakis, P., and Burton, R. M., xe2x80x9cDevelopment of a low cutpoint slit virtual impactor for sampling ambient fine particles,xe2x80x9d Journal of Aerosol Science, 25: 1321-1330, 1994b; Sioutas, C., Koutrakis, P., and Burton, R. M.; xe2x80x9cA high volume small cutpoint virtual impactor for separation of atmospheric particulate from gaseous pollutants,xe2x80x9d Particulate Science and Technology, 12:207-221, 1994c; and, Sioutas, C., Koutrakis, P., Ferguson, S. T. and Burton, R. M.; xe2x80x9cDevelopment and evaluation of an ambient particles concentrator for inhalation exposure studies,xe2x80x9d Inhalation Toxicology, 7(5):633-644 1995). The aerosol concentration device is essentially a virtual impactor capable of achieving a cutpoint of approximately 0.1 xcexcm for aerosol particles.
The physical principle of operation of a virtual impactor is similar to that of an inertial impactor, as both methods use particle inertia to separate particles from gases. A jet of particle-laden air is deflected abruptly by an impaction plate which causes an abrupt deflection of the air streamlines. Particles larger than a critical size (the so-called cutpoint of the impactor) cross the air streamlines and, in the case of an inertial impactor, are collected on the impaction plate, while particles smaller than the critical size follow the deflected streamlines. The main difference between an inertial and a virtual impactor is that in the latter, particles are directed into a collection nozzle rather than onto a collection plate. To separate larger particles continuously from the collection probe, a fraction of the total flow, referred to as the minor flow (typically 10%-20% of the total flow), is allowed to pass through the probe, leaving particles larger than the cutpoint contained in a small fraction of the gas. Particles larger than the cutpoint are, therefore, concentrated into the minor flow, nominally by a factor of the inverse of the minor flow ratio (i.e., particles are concentrated 20-fold for a minor flow of 5 Lxc2x7minxe2x88x921 and total flow of 100 Lxc2x7minxe2x88x921).
The cutpoint of an impactor is determined by several parameters through the Stokes number.                     St        =                                            ρ              p                        ⁢                          d              p              2                        ⁢            U            ⁢                          xe2x80x83                        ⁢                          C              c                                            9            ⁢            η            ⁢                          xe2x80x83                        ⁢                          D              j                                                          (        1        )            
where xcfx81P is the particle density, dP is the particle diameter, U is the impactor jet velocity, xcex7 is the gas viscosity, and Dj is the diameter of the impactor jet (Hinds, xe2x80x9cAerosol Technologyxe2x80x9d, 1982, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.). The slip correction factor, Cc, corrects for the reduced drag on small particles as they approach the mean free path of the gas. The collection efficiency for an impactor is often characterized by its D50, the diameter at which 50% of the input particles are collected. To collect particles as small as 0.05 xcexcm by impaction, a very high pressure drop is required.
The slip correction factor is given by the following equation:                               C          c                =                  1          +                                    2                              P                ⁢                                  xe2x80x83                                ⁢                                  d                  p                                                      ⁡                          [                              6.32                +                                  2.01                  ⁢                                      exp                    ⁡                                          (                                                                        -                          0.1095                                                ⁢                        P                        ⁢                                                  xe2x80x83                                                ⁢                                                  d                          p                                                                    )                                                                                  ]                                                          (        2        )            
where P is the absolute pressure in Cm Hg and dP is the particle diameter in xcexcm.
Virtually all of the mass of the various elemental constituents of the atmospheric aerosol lie in or above the aerosol accumulation region, i.e., at diameters  greater than 50 nm. Therefore, a sampler designed to collect all of this material would need a cutpoint in this range. However, as predicted by equation (1), for such a small particle size to be collected, velocities greater than 150 m/s and nozzle sizes smaller than 0.04 cm are required. Nozzles smaller than 0.03 cm are difficult to manufacture by conventional means and may result in excessive particle losses due to particle impaction onto the lateral nozzle walls. This sets an upper limit to the sampling flow of the aerosol entering the virtual impactor and, even when the velocity of the aerosol equals the speed of sound (approximately 300 m/s at standard temperature and pressure), the total flow rate will be on the order of 1 L/min. Use of nozzles producing such high flow rates produces a very high pressure drop ( greater than 75 kPa) (Marple, V. A. and Willeke, K. (1976) Impactor Design. Atmos. Environ., 10, 891-896.) This requires a large pump and presents problems of preventing clogging of the impactor jets by larger particles if sufficient particulate mass is to be collected in periods xe2x89xa61 hour. Additionally, operation of the impactor at sonic or compressible flow conditions has been shown to result in reduced pressure and temperature at the impactor""s jet, thus distorting the physicochemical properties of the sampled aerosol. Loss of volatile compounds may lead to particle shrinkage. Also, aerodynamic cooling associated with the adiabatic expansion of the high-speed jet may cause particle growth.
Multi-orifice impactors have been proposed as a potential sampling method to overcome the problem low flow rate (Marple et al., xe2x80x9cHigh-volume impactor for sampling fine and coarse particlesxe2x80x9d, J. Air Waste Manag. Assoc., 40: 762-767, 1990). However, fluid dynamic interactions between the micro-orifice jets have been shown to decrease the impactor""s collection efficiency, in some cases to values below 50%. Still further, constructing a virtual micro-orifice impactor requires the construction of an equally large number of collection nozzles. Potential misalignments between the acceleration and collection nozzles, along with the aforementioned jet interactions, may substantially increase the internal particle losses, which are a typical shortcoming of single-nozzle virtual impactors. Particle losses as high as 80% have been observed (Chen et al., xe2x80x9cPerformance of a Modified Virtual Impactorxe2x80x9d, Aerosol Sci. and Technology, 5:369-376, 1986) or predicted for some single-nozzle virtual impactors.
In virtual impactors, most of the loss occurs for particles with diameters nearly equal to the cutpoint. Thus, much higher concentration factors can be achieved without large losses if the cutpoint were much less than the smallest particle size to be separated. This is clearly limited by pressure drop to the 0.1 xcexcm region.
Despite some of the advantages of current techniques for aerosol particles analysis, it is clear that the current technology is insufficient to achieve convenient sample delivery for multi-element analysis at sub-hourly intervals due to lack of adequate sample amount which current technology is capable of collecting during a short period of sampling time. Therefore, an aerosol particle sampling technique which permits collection of sufficient material in less than 30 minutes for near real-time on-line (or off-line) multi-element analysis is needed in the art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for sampling aerosol particles in sufficient quantities for near-real time on-line or off-line analysis using short sampling periods.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for aerosol particle multi-element chemical analysis with high collection efficiency, wherein air is sampled at a flow rate of not less than 170 L/min, and particles are grown by condensation of water vapor in a condenser after aerosol saturation by direct injection of steam, where the resulting droplets are concentrated using a multi-nozzle virtual impactor and collected in liquid slurry with a real impactor either for direct injection into a multi-element graphite furnace atomic absorption apparatus for near-real time on-line chemical analysis of the ambient aerosol, or for filling sample vials for subsequent off-line analysis. According to the teachings of the present invention, a system for multi-element chemical analysis of aerosol particles includes:
a particle concentrator unit for receiving initial particle-laden flow of ambient air and discharging a concentrated air flow containing droplets obtained by condensational growth of the initial particles,
a real impactor for receiving the concentrated air flow from the particle concentrator unit and discharging liquid slurry containing enlarged droplets therefrom, and
a device for multi-element analysis of the slurry received from the inertial or real impactor (for example, Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Analyzer).
The diameter of the droplets is in the range of 0.7-12 xcexcm.
The liquid slurry may either be delivered into a series of sample vials for an off-line analysis by the device for multi-element analysis or may be delivered thereto directly for on-line analysis.
The particle concentrator unit includes:
a saturator receiving the initial particle-laden flow of ambient air and a flow of steam and discharging a saturated aerosol laden with the initial fine particles,
a condenser coupled to the saturator for receiving the saturated aerosol and condensationally growing the initial fine particles in diameter thereof to produce droplets of the enlarged diameter, and
a virtual impactor coupled to the condenser for receiving the air flow laden with the large droplets and for separating the droplets exceeding the predetermined diameter, to obtain the concentrated air flow containing said droplets.
Preferably, the initial particle-laden flow of ambient air is supplied to the saturator at the flow rate in the range 170-260 L/min.
A controllable heater is coupled to the saturator to heat it to a predetermined temperature, while cooling means is coupled to the condenser for maintaining the walls at a predetermined temperature (0.5xc2x0 C.-10xc2x0 C.).
The flow rate of the air laden with droplets is received at the virtual impactor at a flow rate of approximately 200 L/min, while the concentrated minor air flow laden with droplets is expelled from the virtual impactor at 10 L/min.
Additionally, the present invention is a method of multi-element analysis of aerosol particles, which includes the steps of:
supplying a flow of ambient air laden with initial particles to a saturator,
injecting a flow of steam to said saturator for mixing with the ambient air and for saturating it,
directing the saturated ambient air from the saturator into a condenser for condensational growth of the initial particles to produce an air flow laden with droplets of a diameter larger than diameters of the initial particles,
supplying the air flow laden with said droplets to a virtual impactor, for separating from an overall air flow, a concentrated air flow containing the droplets exceeding a predetermined diameter, and then directing the concentrated air flow from the virtual impactor to a real or inertial impactor for forming a liquid slurry containing droplets exceeding the predetermined diameter, and
exposing said liquid slurry to a multi-element analysis.